W A IT t± I 1 TR I 



a, iu 



PRESIDENT' CURTIS, 



OF 



KNOX COLLEGE. 



G-^LESBTTRG, ILL. 



-*V»/ 



INAUGURAL ADDRESS 



DELIVERED AT THE 



ANNUAL COMMENCEMENT 



f OF.. 



KNOX COLLEGE, 



GALESBURG-, ILL., 



June SS, A. r>. 1S03, 



BY REV. WILLIAM S. CURTIS, D. D., 

FOURTH PRESIDENT OF THE COLLEGE. 



PUBLISHED BY THE TRUSTEES. 



J" GALESBURG, ILL. 
1863. 



ADDRESS. 



GENTLEMEN OF THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES: 

After an absence of twenty-five years, with the exception 
of nine months and occasional visits, I find myself in the 
State of Illinois. Under her serene and brilliant heavens, my 
youth passed into manhood. Along her quiet streams, through 
her beautiful groves, and over her broad prairies, I have 
roved, when life was fresh as the flowers of spring that met 
my eye, and restless as the grass that waved around me in 
the gentle breeze. Some of my happiest recollections are of 
her. Some of my purest and sweetest associations are with 
her. Into life's texture she has woven many a golden thread, 
and imparted many a brilliant color. Here not only youth 
put on physical strength, but within the walls of one of her 
literary institutions she taught my mind to think, and sent 
me forth to gather honors in the walks of science, literature, 
and professional life. And here, too, I trust, I found that 
jewel of the heart, which is above all price — the pearl of 
eternal life. I owe much to this State. I would discharge 
the obligation. 

Gentlemen : You have elected me to the Presidency of 
Knox College ; a position of dignity and responsibility, 
enabling me to complete life's work where its foundation was 
laid. I acknowledge the honor. I feel fully the magnitude 
of the trust. The only drawback upon the present hour is 
the deep consciousness of my limited ability to accomplish 
all the good I desire. But whatever of early training, or 



4 

subsequent acquisition, is mine; whatever of wisdom and 
experience, in connection with other literary institutions, I 
may have gained — all, with untiring industry and honesty of 
purpose, is pledged to conserve and advance the interests of 
this Institution. 

It is naturally expected on this occasion, and it is fit in 
itself, that I should say something with reference to the work 
before me. 

The College, the American College, then, is my theme. 

The College presents itself under two aspects — the material 
and the immaterial, the physical and the spiritual. Each is 
essential to the other. They interpenetrate. The union of 
the two constitutes the true ideal. 

The outward aspect begins in the buildings. This gives 
to it location. There must be buildings, both for the very 
existence and successful operation of an institution of 
learning. The error has been in leaving off at the begin- 
ning. Some have supposed that with the erection of an 
imposing structure, or structures, the College was made ; 
that it would run of itself. In many instances, it has run 
of itself, and run itself out; or rather its rooms have 
never been filled, and its walls have gone to decay. 
Some of the States have erected costly and capacious edifices, 
yet have no College. It is unwise to expend the whole, or the 
greater part, of an endowment in the erection of buildings. 
The outlay should not be greatly disproportionate to present 
demands. New structures should be added, or old ones 
enlarged, only as necessity requires. They should be adapted 
to their purpose. Though we have copied from the English, 
and Oxford and Cambridge are the outgrowth of the Monastic 
institutions of the Middle Ages, the cell of the monk should 
not be reproduced in the dormitory of the student. The 
room of the student should be sufficiently lighted, properly 
ventilated, and possess an air not of homely, but home-like 
comfort. The Recitation Room should be redolent of thought. 
The Chapel should inspire the spirit of religious devotion. 



The whole in its parts, and the parts in the whole, should be 
adapted to their purpose. 

Nor should aesthetic effect be omitted. It is a shame that 
so many of our College edifices are so barren of all beauty 
and architectural expression. Often, with the same means 
expended in their original construction, they might have been 
made objects of real pleasure to the eye, and of cultivation 
to the taste. They should express the spirit of the age and 
the very genius of learning. Around them, and in them, the 
youthful scholar is to spend some of the most susceptible 
years of his life. What impressions shall the very wood and 
stone, the brick and mortar of his Alma Mater, fix upon 
him ? With what associations shall he look back to her ? As 
the convict to the gloomy walls around him ? Or as a true 
son of science and letters, to a work of art, and a fit abode 
for Apollo and the Muses ? 

The surroundings, also, constitute an important feature in 
the physical aspect of the College. The grounds should be 
tastefully laid out with gravel-walks, decorated with choice 
shrubs, beautified with flowers cultivated by the hand of the 
student in his hours of relaxation. Over all, and crowning 
all, majestic and graceful trees should be permitted to lift 
their heads and spread their branches, that the Academic 
grove may be more than a classic reminiscence ; that it may 
be a joy and an inspiration to the youthful scholar. Was it 
purely accidental that Socrates and Plato drew their students 
around them in the grove and on the banks of the little Ilys- 
sus? Was there not a deeper principle that invited to medi- 
tation, and predisposed the mind to profound thought ? 

But the physical aspect of the College is not complete till 
the buildings are filled — until each department of instruction 
is furnished with the material for its specific work ; and what- 
ever contributes to general culture shall have found its appro- 
priate place. 

Here, then, the Cabinet should collect, arrange, and exhibit 
the choicest specimens from the mineral kingdom : that the 
student and the man of science may see the results of crys- 



tallization in all its geometric forms and chemical combinations. 
Here rocks, fossils, and minerals should be gathered, carrying 
back the mind to past geological ages ; showing us how the 
world was built ; what plants have grown upon it, now extinct ; 
what animated existence once peopled its slimy deeps, or 
roamed through its primitive forests. 

Here, too, the Laboratory should be furnished with ample 
apparatus to unlock the secrets of nature, to untie the wed- 
lock of simple substances, to release the gases from their con- 
finement, to precipitate the more ponderable substances, and 
show us the proportions and laws by which out of only some 
sixty elements a world so useful, so varied, and so beautiful 
as this, is built up. 

Natural Philosophy, also, should here find the means of 
testing her facts and illustrating her laws. The instruments 
for the elucidation of optics, electricity, the mechanical 
powers, the force of gravitation, hydrostatic pressure, and so 
on, through the whole of this field of observation, should be 
here carefully kept and skillfully used. 

Here, too, an Equatorial instrument should find place in 
some lofty tower or observatory, with all its attendant aids^of 
mechanical contrivance, both for original research and the 
verification of facts already known in the grandest of the 
sciences. 

A Library, also, should here enrich its shelves with the 
choicest treasures of thought, produced by every living peo- 
ple, or handed down from the silent ages of extinct races. 
" A good book," says Milton, " is the precious life-blood of a 
master spirit, embalmed and treasured up on purpose to a life 
beyond life." 

A Museum should here unfold its doors to receive what- 
ever is rare and curious in nature and art, contributed both 
by the sons and friends of the Institution. Objects illustrat- 
ing the manners, industry, and religion of uncivilized races 
of men, should here find a place. Coins, which carry back 
the mind to the highest antiquity, and preserve the names 



and the very features of conquerors, kings, and emperors, 
should here be arranged in cases. 

Here, too, should the Fine Arts find a consecrated home. 
Either in a gallery appropriated for the purpose, or as embel- 
lishment to Cabinet, and Library, and Museum, should Statuary 
and Painting address the eye, awaken the aesthetic emotions, 
and refine, purify, and elevate the whole man. 

To carry forward these objects, and secure a corps of com- 
petent instructors, the College needs a large endowment. 
Not only should it be ample for present purposes, but, also, 
for prospective ends. The buildings will need to be repaired 
and enlarged, or new ones erected. The grounds at the 
appropriate seasons will need to be dressed, and new charms 
added to them. New minerals will need to be placed in the 
Cabinet, and new instruments in the Laboratory, Philosopical 
Chamber and Observatory. A yearly generous appropriation 
will be necessary to replenish the Library, and keep it fur- 
nished with recent publications. The Museum and Gallery 
of Fine Arts will need new objects of interest and works of 
genius to increase their usefulness. The increasing demands 
of the age upon public institutions of learning will add new 
departments, and hence will render an increase of instructors 
necessary. Already the school of Civil and Military Engi- 
neering, the school of Industrial Mechanics and Physics, the 
school of Agricultural and Analytical Chemistry, and the 
school of Drawing and Perspective, have been opened. The 
bestowment of prizes for superior excellence in certain 
branches of study, will commend itself to the judgment. A 
foundation for poor, yet deserving, young men, who give 
great promise of usefulness, will be felt to be necessary. All 
these are the material of education, and show us the physical 
aspect of the College. 

But I noticed that there is a spiritual aspect. These build- 
ings are to be pervaded with life. These rooms, and halls, and 
repositories of Nature and Art, and conserved Thought, are to 
feel another presence — the presence of living forces. This is 
the home of scholars and aspirants after scientific and literary 



8 

culture, and the very atmosphere they breathe, which envelopes 
their abode and its surroundings, is to be redolent with thought. 
The genius of true learning is here to be enthroned, to preside 
over these materials, and appropriate them to its purpose. 
Here the man of varied acquirements and profound thought 
is to push forward original research, bringing forth his intel- 
lectual treasures to stimulate other minds to activity, to take 
youth by the hand and lead it forth into the Elysian fields, 
and develop its powers in presence of, and in contact with, 
truth. For this purpose, he must not only be intellectually 
competent, but he must be enthusiastically devoted to his 
profession. Teaching is a profession. In the highest depart- 
ments of knowledge it is a learned profession. To the three 
original professions modern times has added a fourth. It is 
inferior only to the sacred, with which it seems to have many 
affinities ; for we see the two so often combined in the same 
person. There is a facility in stepping from the sacred office 
to teaching, and from teaching to the sacred office, that does 
not exist between the other professions. In dignity and 
importance they are very much alike. The day has gone by 
when the ideal of a teacher suggested a book-worm, with 
thread-bare and antiquated garments, and a crotchet in his 
head which disqualified him for the practical and more 
honorable duties of life. He is not to be a recluse, but he is 
to feel the forces upon the broad avenue of life, and they are 
to feel him. He must be a man of generous culture, and at 
the same time eminent in his department. He should be 
second to none in his specialty. He cannot instruct the 
youth of to-day without being far in advance of them in 
their studies. He must not only be in advance of them, but 
his name should be known and have honorable mention out- 
side of the sphere of his immediate duties and daily toils. 
I have said he must be enthusiastic in his special department. 
Without this the learner will not be waked up, nor fired with 
zeal and industry in the pursuit of his particular branch of 
knowledge. His own soul must be on fire if he would kindle 
the flame in the heart of youth. He must, also, possess a 
knowledge of human nature— I should say toy nature. He 



must be a boy himself, only a little older, and far in advance 
of those around him, in amount of information, in grasp of 
mind, and in experience of life. It was said of England's 
greatest and most successful teacher, the late Dr. Arnold, 
that he was the king of boys. He possessed a boy's nature, 
and manifested it in sympathy with the trials, amusements, 
and pleasures of his pupils. It drew them wonderfully near 
him, and him wonderfully near to them. At the same time, 
he maintained his dignity, and preserved his influence over 
them. Finally, the teacher must not only love his work, for 
that is implied in enthusiasm, but he must love his pupils. 
They are immortal beings. They are not only in a course of 
discipline with reference to this life, but with reference to 
that which is to come. Their moral nature cannot stand still 
while their intellectual is being exercised and developed. 
Though they be little impressed as to their spiritual nature 
through the Natural Sciences, Mathematics, or the Classics, 
yet they will feel the moral forces operating around them ; 
and in the study of Moral and Intellectual Science, the Evi- 
dences of Christianity, and those portions of the Bible assigned 
in the regular corriculum of the course, they will come 
directly into contact with the religious element. ISTo man 
can be liberally educated in this day in ignorance of Bible 
History, Philosophy, Literature, and Religion. The spiritual 
welfare of the student is not subordinate to the intellectual, 
but the intellectual is subordinate to the spiritual. Indeed, 
practical religion determines the individual aims of liberal 
culture. It consecrates the soul to human learning, not only 
by legitimating its ends, but by subduing the passions and 
harmonizing the moral and intellectual man. The highest 
interests of the soul necessarily react favorably upon its lower 
interests — the purely intellectual. Love, therefore, of the 
pupil in his highest interests is favorable to his progress in 
learning. The greater includes the less. Besides, love im- 
measurably increases the personal power of the teacher, in 
securing the narrower objects of his profession. Thus Col- 
ridge, in stating the three canons for the education of youth, 
says : " First, to work by love, and so generate love." " My 
B 



10 

experience tells me that little is taught or communicated by 
contest or dispute, but everything by sympathy and love. 
Collision elicits truth only from the hardest head. I hold 
motives to be of little influence [except as connected] with 
feelings." The College is the home of those devoted to the 
practical duties ol teaching and those who are passing through 
the educating process. It is a life. It is not a mechanism. 
It is a life of culture. It is not a thing made, though material 
do enter into the conception. It is a growth. Though the 
two ideas are involved, the last is the more important. Life is 
imparted to those who resort to its academic halls and classic 
shades. 

This, then, brings us to the true educating process ; not outside 
material or its appliance ; not instructors or their qualifica- 
tions ; not a corriculum or rules of discipline ; but the inter- 
nal process that transpires in the mind being educated. 
There are two views of education as its ends are distin- 
guished. One is simply to impart information and cultivate 
the facility of applying it to the various practical purposes of 
life. This being the theory, the mind as an instrument of 
power merely, either with or without much information, is 
not regarded. This is the view of the practical man. He 
would discard from the system of education the higher math- 
ematics and the ancient classics. If mathematics are studied 
efficiently for civil engineering and the purposes of navigation, 
for agricultural industry and the mechanic arts, it is enough. 
For the study of the ancient languages, he would substitute 
the German, the French, the Italian, the Spanish. Let some- 
thing useful, he would say, be learned. Let something be 
acquired that will gain the Almighty Dollar, or promote the 
outward ends of life. 

Now, I would not depreciate this kind of culture, or under- 
value the material interests of society. There is a practical 
education, and it has its uses. We need railroads, and if so, 
persons sufficiently acquainted with science, or that kind of 
science necessary to their construction. "We need agricul- 
turalists ; not only those who can hold the plow, or reap the 



11 

golden grain, but who, in addition to the skill of operative 
industry, understand the application of science to this great 
pursuit. We need machinists; not only those capable of 
making an implement after a given pattern, but who under- 
stand Nature's great laws in their application to machinery ; 
the three mechanical powers — the force of gravitation, hydro- 
static pressure, friction, and so on ; so as to be able to con- 
struct a machine upon scientific principles, and to state its 
movements and the action of its forces accurately in figures. 
This, then, being the view of education as held by the practical 
man, there can be no objection to it. Only as it is made to 
exclude education in a higher sense, and as viewed from a 
true philosophic position, is it objectionable. But in this 
way it is objectionable. Many make it to pass, not only for 
education, but for education in the best and only true sense. 
With them the word education, and its cognates, mean noth- 
ing except the acquisition and ready application of knowledge 
to the practical arts of life. 

But there is education in a different sense, and with a 
different end to be accomplished by it, as viewed in a true 
philosophic spirit. Though practical in its final results, it 
makes not the acquisition of knowledge so much an end as a 
means. The end here is mainly power — growth from within, 
not accretion from without. This is education in its highest 
and best sense, and is more in harmony with the etymology 
of the term and the laws of mental progress. The word, as 
we all know, is derived from the two Latin words e and duco, 
to lead out, to draw forth, not to conduct into from without. 
The materials, in this sense of mental superiority, must be 
essentially within. If the design of intellectual elevation 
exist, it must be in the mind to be elevated. The instru- 
mental agents, also, to be employed, are the faculties of the 
mind itself and the habits superinduced upon it. The seat 
of expansion, of activity, of power is within. The quantum 
of knowledge derived from without, or the number of facts 
stored in the memory, is not the true measure of intellectual 
progress. In that case, in and duco, to lead in, should have 
been employed. To educate the mind, is to draw out its 



12 

capacities, not to stuff it — to awaken its latent energies, and 
give them breadth, elasticity, and projectile force. It is to 
develop the germs of thought and beauty, not to render the 
mind a passive receptacle for whatever impressions or facts 
may be conveyed to it. " Alas, how many examples (says 
Coleridge) are now present to our memory, of young men, the 
most anxiously and expensively be-school-mastered, be-tutored, 
be-lectured, anything but educated : who have received arms 
and ammunition, instead of skill, strength, and courage: 
varnished rather than polished : perilously uncultivated ! 
And all from inattention to the method dictated by nature 
herself, to the simple truth, that as the forms in all organized 
existence, so must all true and living knowledge proceed from 
within ;. that it may be trained, supported, fed, excited, but 
can never be infused or impressed." 

True, knowledge from without may be conveyed into the 
mind, but it is for a very different purpose than that contem- 
plated by the practical man. The object in this case is to 
stimulate the mind to activity. Facts and principles from 
without are taken up into the mental constitution to increase 
the mental muscle, as food taken into the physical system 
unites with it, and gives it strength, lithness, endurance, 
activity. Otherwise food taken into the mind is not a means 
of education, either by drawing forth the faculties in the act 
of acquiring, or by uniting what is acquired with the inner 
life. The receiving mind and the truth received must 
coalesce. Information from without must combine essentially 
with the life-principle. It must enter into new combinations, 
so that when reproduced it shall appear in new dress, and 
with original conceptions. Thus the plant that is in process 
of growth, selects the materials of which it is composed from 
the earth, the air, the sunshine, the shower, and combining 
these, pours them forth in the freshness of its leaves, the 
beauty of its flowers, and the richness of its fruit. By its 
own inherent power it organizes foreign substances into itself. 
Vivified by vegetable life, and distributed according to the 
organic law of the plant, they now constitute the plant itself. 
So education, in the view we now take of it, presupposes the 



13 

combination of all its foreign acquisitions with the mind. 
Accretion simply is not the idea. Action and reaction must 
be reciprocal. Knowledge received from without must take 
on life, and in turn impart life. Thus food taken into the 
system, takes on life, and then reacts in increasing the life 
the system already possesses. Facts and principles are taken 
into the intellectual system, are distributed and arranged into 
an organized whole, and become vitalized with the mind. 
To take acquired information into combination with the 
faculties themselves, and give it the stamp of the mind in its 
own peculiarity and originality — this is true culture. 

Besides, in this process of intellectual growth, it is the 
province of all true information taken into the mind from 
without to suggest more than it really is. The fact from 
without uncovers the one in obscurity with which it lies con- 
nected in the mind. The object of perception in the act of 
perception, not only calls into being emotion, feeling, and 
purpose, with which it 'may be associated, but reveals the 
wheels and coggs of the internal machinery. The object of 
beauty from without excites the sense of the beautiful within, 
and reveals to the internal eye the hidden world of beauty. 
Thus to uncover, or call out of ourselves, information sug- 
gested by that taken into the mind, is one of the great ends 
to be attained in the educational process. The mind, so to 
speak, must be carried into itself. It must possess itself of 
the treasures of its own being. Out of the depths of its own 
nature must it call forth knowledge, classify facts, and deduce 
principles. 

Nor is this all. The educational process requires that 
knowledge be familiarized to the mind. Not only must there 
be ideas from without and from within, but the mind must 
become intimately acquainted with its own intellectual fur- 
niture. It is not so much the amount of knowledge pos- 
sessed by this individual or that, that constitutes mental supe- 
riority, as the control which each has over his intellectual 
resources. How common is the remark, " I knew this or 
that, if I could only have thought of it, or had understood 



14 

how to apply it." The truth is, he did not know it. No 
man knows a fact or principle who is incapable of bring- 
ing it out of the depths of his own being when called 
for. No man knows the alphabet, if he does not know the 
whole of it, each letter in distinction from the rest, and the 
power of each in combination to form words to express ideas 
when needed. The original elements of knowledge are alike, 
the same in all minds, in the peasant and the philosopher. 
Even a little child has all the facts of consciousness, and 
knows matter in its properties. The elementary principles 
which lie at the foundation of all human knowledge are com- 
mon to the world. But the use of these principles, and famili- 
arity with them in their use, are the prerogative and reward 
of the diligent student only. It is not, therefore, so much the 
object of education to impart original information, as to 
familiarize the mind with what it already knows. The instru- 
ments, their use, and the material on which they are employed, 
are all within. A little that is well known, and always at 
command, is better than a Thesaurus imperfectly known, and 
never ready at command when needed. " Beware of the man 
of one book," is an old adage. Intellectual light that is con- 
centrated upon a few points, renders them the more luminous. 
Diffuse the rays over a wide space, and objects appear dim, 
and are hard to define. Hence the advantage of a specialty. 
Truth brought into the focus of the mental sun-glass is re- 
solved into its constituent elements. The preeminence of 
ancient Greek culture lies in the assiduity with which the 
mind was devoted to the detail of what it undertook. The 
drama, architecture, statuary, painting, oratory, indeed every 
form of literary art among that ancient people, shows that as 
the field of effort is narrowed, or the rays of hnman intelli- 
gence are concentrated upon it, in the same proportion is 
there increased perfection of results. True, the principle here 
is not to be carried too far". The field of research is not to be 
narrowed out of all proportion to the truth to be explored, or 
the number and character of the faculties to be developed. 
The object should be the attainment of just such truth, and 
just such familiarity with it as will give the highest polish to 



15 

the intellect, and put into its possession the deepest principles 
and the readiest use of them. This leads to the formation of 
correct intellectual habits. JSTo man can familiarize knowledge 
to his mind, without mental force express itself in well-defined 
modes. The formation of correct intellectual habits, there- 
fore, is only another name for the educational process. 

Nor is the process confined to mere accumulation, or the 
generating of intellectual power. It includes the taste with 
which ideas are arranged, and the dress in which they appear. 
It cultivates the field of Literary Art. It results in intellec- 
tual embellishment. The word culture is derived from the 
Latin colo, to apply labor to the ground, to bring forth the 
germs within it, to train the young plant after it springs up, 
not only for purposes of utility, but also for aesthetic effect. 
To develop the principle of vegetable life, till it fill the air 
with its fragrance, our dwellings and their adjacent grounds 
with embellishment, is not unlike the process by which the 
aesthetic part of our nature is developed into beauty, and the 
capacity to perceive, appreciate and admire it whenever found. 
To cultivate the mind in this direction, is to till the sacred 
soil, quicken the germ, train the tender plant, till like the life- 
principle just mentioned, it fill our literature with its fra- 
grance, our mental homes with beautiful conceptions, nature 
itself with additional charms, and find for itself an enduring 
conservatory in the Fine Arts. 

Style, as an intellectual production, is a growth from within. 
Thought and the dress in which it appears are a growth 
together. Style roots itself ultimately in germinal ideas, as 
form in nature and art is determined by conception. Style is 
the form in which ideas are expressed by human language. 
As the one grows, the other grows. As the one changes, the 
other changes. Style is dependent upon the growth and cul- 
ture of the mind. It becomes profound, characterized for 
simplicity, distinctness and strength, as the mind is thus char- 
acterized. It becomes clear, characterized for distinctness of 
statement and perspicuity as the mind is thus distinguished. 
It becomes beautiful as taste is improved, and the light of the 
imagination is reflected through it. Beauty grows by culti- 



H 

vation out of the mind, as naturally as flowers out of the plants 
they adorn. To beautify the style, is to multiply beautiful 
conceptions. The form and the thought go together. They 
are interwoven. They are separable only by mental analysis. 
Beauty of style can no more exist without beauty of thought, 
or beauty of thought without beauty of style, than flowers 
can grow without the vital stock, or the vital stock without 
them. Thought-culture, therefore, is style-culture. One 
grows out of the other. One expresses itself in the other. 
Culture and beauty, therefore, become one. The expression 
of beauty also stimulates the mind to reproduce itself in the 
same way. Thought acts upon the form, and the form upon 
the thought, The union of the two is the perfection of beauty. 
When thought is lost in the form, and the form in thought, 
there is nothing more to be desired. The whole field of Litera- 
ture is filled with the Mossoming of the mind. Culture is but 
another name for beauty, and beauty for culture. 

It is needless to say here that the ground work of this cul- 
ture lies in the study of the Higher Mathematics, the Ancient 
Classics, and Metaphysics. Nothing can be a substitute for 
these in the educational process. They have stood the test 
from the revival of letters to the present time, through the 
whole period of modern attempts at intellectual cultivation. 
Where a change has been effected, and they discarded, or 
superseded by anything regarded as more practical, education 
has become superficial and finally resulted in a failure. The 
natural sciences, the modern languages, criticism in English 
studies — all good in their place — have been substituted, and 
the result has been a failure. I will not, however, enter into 
this discussion. 

But I should fail to do justice to this subject did I not notice 
the connection of Christianity with it. We affirm then that 
neither the objects nor the process of modem culture can be 
attained without Christianity. Her rays must penetrate the 
intellect, her power must be felt at the heart, or mental train- 
ing is inadequate and imperfect. The elements from above 
must meet the elements from beneath, and be intertwined 
with them to give depth and permanency, beauty and purity 



17 

in the highest degree to mental growth. Training under 
Pagan and Christian auspices are different things. However 
much we owe to the former, the latter completes the process. 
As a historian, Moses is superior to Heroditus ; as a religious 
teacher, Christ is superior to Socrates ; as philosophers, Lord 
Bacon and Bishop Butler are superior to Aristotle and Plato. 
In the walks of the Imagination, also, the Muse that seeks 
her inspiration at 

"Siloa's brook that flows 
Fast by the oracle of God," 

is superior to all the Muses on Mount Parnassus. Sad were 
it, indeed, if the minds of our young men were left to unfold 
simply under the light of Nature, of physical science, of 
ancient pagan culture, or of art, systems, and ideas, in mod- 
ern times, which recognize no God supernaturally revealed, 
no Bible supernaturally given, no Savior supernaturally 
impressing himself upon the world. Mental culture, there- 
fore, reaches its highest culmination only as Christian thought 
pervades it, as Science, Art, and Literature grow out of 
Christian ideas, or rather as Christian ideas are organized 
into the working spirit of the young aspirant after self-culture 
and high intellectual acquirements. The heart must be taken 
into the process. Freed from passion and all unholy ambition, 
it clarifies the mental ray. As the motives are pure, the 
objects of education become sublime. The one acts upon 
the other. As previously noticed, the heart reacts upon the 
intellect, and the intellect upon the heart. Not till the culti- 
vation of the heart is taken into the account, is the educational 
process complete, or even rightly conceived. The true ideal 
is divine. As the weaver of Gobelin tapestry fixes his eye 
upon the pattern above and before him, so must the student 
fix his eye upon the pattern shown in the Mount. He must 
reach the point where in his experience, and from deepest 
conviction, he can say : 

" Too long have I, with tearful eye, 
Pored o'er this tangled work of mine, and mused 
Above each stitch awry and thread confused ; 
Now will I think on what in years gone by 



18 

I heard of them that weave rare tapestry 
At royal looms, and how they constant use 
To work on the rough side, and still peruse 
The pictured pattern set above them high ; 
So will I set my copy high above, 
And gaze and gaze, till on my spirit grows 
Its gracious impress." 

This is true education; for it makes the ultimate end in 
human progress not only intellectual, but moral. It gives 
the greater grandeur to the process, as it links results not only 
with the best interests of time, but with the interests of 
eternity. 

I have spoken of the College in its material and intellectual 
aspects. 

Let us now notice briefly some of its relations. 

Its relation to Science and General Literature is obvious 
and intimate. How large a number of works on science, 
physical and metaphysical, come directly from men connected 
with literary institutions. Many are not content to confine 
their efforts to the drill merely of the recitation room. They 
are stimulated to original research. They aim at scientific 
discovery. They would add to knowledge outside of the 
text-book, and by so doing prepare themselves all the more 
to teach that which lies within it. College life and its sur- 
roundings favor this result. Books, and philosophical appara- 
tus, and contact with highly cultivated mind, and devotion 
to some one branch of science, both from choice and occupa- 
tion, and the very air that is breathed, all unite to lead forth 
the mind into new and fresh fields of thought. The result is 
what might be expected : science is enlarged ; she yields up 
her richest treasures ; information is diffused, and other minds 
catch the inspiration. Or if one look abroad upon community, 
wherever we notice men engaged in original research, we 
shall find that they received their training in the College. 
Where our scientific men originate, is not a question. They 
come from the College. It not only stimulates the mind, and 
furnishes the facilities for original research, but it, and it 
alone, gives to the mind the habit of close observation, and 



19 

the power of strict deduction, by which an advance in science 
is rendered possible. Not only must facts be noticed, whether 
of external phenomenon or internal consciousness, but they 
must be noticed with profound meditation, and the principles 
deduced from them must be with the most logical accuracy. 

Literature, also, is equally indebted to the College. Not 
only are her fruits gathered up into the library, and inter- 
woven with the life of culture afforded, but the elect sons of 
College, who preside over her immediate interests, and geek 
to promote her usefulness, send out streams of their own to 
gladden the heart, inform the mind, and refine the taste. 
Those, too, in other walks of life, who labor in the same 
direction, it will be found have caught, their inspiration, and 
were stimulated to activity, by the training in the College. 
I do not mean to deny by this that men have contributed to 
this department of intellectual effort without this previous 
training. But they have been men of superior natural 
endowment, and, in most instances, so favorably situated in 
life as to indulge the native bias of their minds ; or, if not 
thus situated, the original force of their characters has enabled 
them to overcome difficulties, under which ordinary minds 
would have sunk. They have gained preeminence, not because 
of the want of College education, but in spite of that want. 
The light of genius was in them, and they could not but 
shine. On the other hand, many who have been educated 
in College have contributed nothing to embellish literary art. 
They have gone out of sight, or been otherwise engaged. 
But neither the one nor the other is a criterion on this sub- 
ject. They who have risen to eminence without a generous 
culture, have always been conscious of the disadvantages 
under which they have labored, and their works have ever 
shown the marks of imperfections which the College only 
could have remedied. Those who mine in the depths of 
philosophy, or embellish song, or furnish the weighty articles 
for the monthly magazine, or give dignity to newspaper 
paragraphs, or reproduce the facts of the past, and state their 
underlying principles, and throw around them the charm of 



20 

rhetoric, till they detain us like the Ancient Mariner the 
Wedding Guests, must be College bred. Thucydides and 
Tacitus prepare the mind of the future historian; Homel- 
and Horace that of the poet ; Aristotle and Plato that of the 
philosopher ; Prescott and Bancroft, Longfellow and Bryant, 
Locke and Hamilton, show us the connection of the College 
with general Letters. 

The College, also, is related to the Professions. Indeed, 
without it, they could neither honor the title " learned," nor 
be honored by it. Medicine, Law, and the Christian Ministry, 
as professions, are based upon clearly ascertained principles. 
Each is distinguished from the others, and all from quackery, 
by such principles. Each consists of principles and their 
application to the practical wants of man. Medicine is a 
science. Its employment in the cure and prevention of disease 
makes it a profession. Law is a science. The application of 
its principles in the administration of justice between man 
and man, makes it a profession. Theology, when systema- 
tized, is a science. The application of it by a living ministry, 
makes it a profession. Hence the phraseology — the theory 
and practice of Medicine, the Law and the practice of the 
courts, Theology and pastoral duty. It is not asserted that 
the professions never change, or may not be improved. 
Medicine in the days of Hippocrates and Galen, Law in the 
times of Draco and the Pandects of Pome, and Theology in 
the hands of Dun Scotus and Thomas Acquinas, were very 
different from the same departments of science in modern 
times. All sciences improve. New principles in Medicine, 
Law, and Theology are discovered, and new applications are 
made of the old ones. It is not only the duty of the physi- 
cian to understand the principles of his profession, as laid 
down in the books, but to study the laws of life and health 
as disclosed in animal life, especially in human life, that he 
may learn the causes of disease and death. He must not only 
understand materia medica as a study of the books, but he 
must know the various elements of nature, and their relation 
to his profession, that he may preserve the health and cure 



21 

the diseases of his fellow men. It is not only the duty of the 
jurist to understand the principles of his profession as found 
in Justinian and Blaekstone, but he is to ascertain new prin- 
ciples, and the new application of old ones, in recent decisions 
of the courts, and in the civil history and social advancement 
of modern enlightened countries. So, too, the theologian is 
not to stop with Origen and Armenius, with Calvin and 
Wesley, but he is to make himself acquainted with sacred 
science as it now exists. Kecent exegesis has done much to 
give a correct grammatical construction of the Bible, and 
rules of hermeneutics a correct interpretation, and fundamental 
principles in philosophy new modes of explaining the doc- 
trines. Nor should he fail to cherish the hope that he himself 
may do something to illustrate the sacred page and adorn his 
profession. Besides, who are to write the tomes, weighty, 
elaborate, and of authority, in these professions ? And who 
are to man the schools as professors in which these professions 
are taught ? "Who is to do all this ? I am willing to confess 
that men of rare genius have shone in all these departments 
of labor without the discipline of College life ; but how much 
greater would they have been, how much more extensive and 
accurate their acquirements, and how much more good they 
would have accomplished, had they been properly educated. 
What now would be our reliance if we were wholly depend- 
ent upon these few and rare instances of splendid genius ? 
How soon would Medicine, as a science, dwindle into insignifi- 
cance, and, as an art, into superstition and charlatanry. How 
soon would the distinction between the able jurist and the 
merest pettifogger be lost. How soon the clergymen, now 
respected for his learning as well as his piety, would sink into 
the intellectual driveller and pious ranter. As for profes- 
sional schools, and elaborate works on professional science, 
we should have none. Our forty medical schools, and twenty 
law schools, and fifty theological seminaries, would be dis- 
banded. I will not here speak of the incidental benefits to 
community of the information put into circulation by educated 
professional men. Their loss would be a public calamity ; 
and they would be lost but for the College. We sometimes 



22 

smile at the practical blunders of the educated man ; but we 
have more to fear from the ignorance of the uneducated. It 
is a serious thing to put life, and health, and property, and 
even the salvation of the soul, into the hands of the charlatan. 

The College, also, is related to politics. It does not expend 
its force upon science and literature, the professions and pro- 
fessional schools, which may seem more closely connected with 
it. Its energies are felt upon a broader expanse. Its influence 
describes a wider circle. Where the form of government is 
popular in its character, the people will be stirred by the 
questions of the day affecting their social and civil interests. 
Parties will be organized. The political canvass will often 
become intensely exciting. The ballot-box will be made to 
settle the most important principles of government, and the 
gravest questions of public polic} 7 . It will reach the delib- 
erations of the Senate ; it will influence the decisions of the 
Judiciary ; it will strengthen or weaken the hands of the 
Executive. The ballot-box is the most impressive symbol of 
popular power. The people, also, are capable of being mis- 
led. Under the guidance of designing men, they will be 
misled. When the elective franchise is extended, the press 
comparatively without restraint, and the freedom of opinion 
almost without limit, the partisan will find opportunities and 
facilities for the advancement of selfish ends, however detri- 
mental to the public good. The emoluments of office are 
sufficient of themselves, in a country great and rich, to stim- 
ulate one party and another. Add to this, popular ignorance 
and prejudice, the excitement of the most ferocious passions, 
and the intense love of power in political leaders, and what 
a sea have we spread out before us, susceptible to every 
wind that blows, and what elements of storm are ever ready 
to visit it. The ship of state must ride upon this sea. It 
must ever be exposed to these elements. Its sails are liable 
to be torn ; its masts cut away ; its helm may pass into the 
hands of unskillful pilots ; its crew may become mutinous, 
and arrayed in hostile factions one against another, as painful 
events are now teaching us. JSTow, who shall pilot the ship 
out of dangerous seas into smooth waters ; who repair the 



23 

damage, or heal the divisions among the crew, and induce in 
them again love for the old hulk ? What we need is, men of 
enlarged capacity, who can see the underlying principles of 
political measures ; who are not so blinded by immediateism 
as to be unable to comprehend the remote consequences of a 
given course ; and who are too honest to be imposed upon 
by the mere catch-words of party. We want men who will 
go before the people, and discuss the questions of the day, 
upon their true merits ; who will tell the people what is for 
their true interests — not for to-day, but for to-morrow, and 
for all time to come ; men who will adorn the halls of legis- 
lation with argument, not degrade them with party slang — 
make them redolent with the beauties of culture, and not 
resonant with coarse and vulgar speech ; men who can see 
and will penetrate the sophistries and concealed designs of 
wicked men, who can and will lift a question out of its mere 
party aspects, and give it a broad and comprehensive view. 
We need men in the judiciary, also, who will serve as a check 
upon hasty, unwise, and party legislation. To do this, they 
must not only be honest, but understand the general princi- 
ples of human society, the organic laws of the particular gov- 
ernment under which they exercise their functions, and the 
special enactments passed from time to time. These they 
must explain, and apply to particular cases, without fear or 
favor. They are the agents of society at large, not of a sec- 
tion or a district, much less of a party. The Executive, also, 
should be the ruler of the people, not of a party. He is bound 
to see that the laws are executed, not to build up this party, 
or put down that. He is to exercise his power for the public 
good, not to pervert it for the gratification of individual love 
or hate. He is to understand the duties of his office, and 
perform them. Now, where shall we find men with the 
requisite qualifications for all these positions ; or rather what 
is the process that will qualify them for these high trusts? 
Some, by native vigor of intellect, may push themselves up 
into these posts of influence, and discharge their responsibili- 
ties with credit to themselves, and for the public good ; but 
the College after all is our main reliance. It, and it only, 



24: 

gives the requisite mental discipline. Besides, some of its 
studies (constitutional law, civil history, and political economy) 
directly fit men for these public duties. Nor have the public 
been slow to appreciate the superiority of such men in the 
conduct of civil affairs. Seventy thousand men have been 
educated at the higher institutions of learning in our land. 
From them as a class more have been chosen to public office 
than from the millions who received not their training. The 
country has produced six thousand lawyers, nearly one-half 
of whom have been educated. We all know how largely 
our public men are taken from the legal profession; yet 
three-fourths of those selected to office have been from the 
educated half. Twenty-five of the signers of the Declaration 
of Independence, the committee who drafted the present 
Constitution under which we live, and all of the Chief Jus- 
tices who have been appointed to the Supreme Court of the 
United States, were educated men. Of the fifty-nine Presi- 
dents, Yice Presidents, and Secretaries, since the organization 
of the government, forty-three have been educated men. 

Finally, the College is related to Popular Education. Its 
influence is not confined to the heights of learning and of 
politics. It descends into the quiet valley, among the tender 
plants and flowers, affecting the mind in its earlier develop- 
ments. Common Schools, and those of an intermediate rank, 
are an offshoot from it. The College trains the teachers ; it 
qualifies those who prepare the text-books ; it inspires the 
general tone of education at the fountain. "Where the 
university is cherished," says one, " classical schools will be 
formed to prepare the candidates for it; and where the 
classical schools are prosperous, common schools will spring 
up around them. The College requires lower institutions as 
its auxiliaries, and what it demands will be supplied for it. 
It enriches the soil from which it draws up its nourishment. 
It awakens the spirit of education, and without this a State 
law may appoint masters over the children, but will never 
make those children scholars, nor those masters instructors." 
The College is a life. It is a life of culture. It originates 
inferior institutions. It fosters learning in its incipient stages. 



25 

It is like the Banyan tree : the parent stock sends out its 
branches, these take root and in turn send out other branches, 
to take root and perform the same process, till a community 
or a nation may rind shade and protection within its ample 
folds. The common school cannot qualify its own teachers. 
They require that system of training which is derived only 
from the higher institutions. There is little tendency in the 
popular mind to rise higher than the common level. Only 
as it is reached by those above it, will it make true advance- 
ment in the ascendant. Common schools without the College 
to sustain them, will not only deteriorate, but die. There is 
influence, also, from beneath. The connection is reciprocal, 
though the greater force is felt from above. The life of a tree 
is not preserved except in connection with its roots. The 
roots furnish what is elaborated in the sunshine, air, and open 
cope of heaven. They select the nutriment that is trans- 
formed into the woody fibre, that sustains the structure erect, 
that clothes it with verdure, and beauty, and precious fruit. 
Detach the roots, and there is no tree to be sustained. Detach 
the tree and its branches, and the vitality of the roots expires. 
The, College cannot extricate itself, nor the lower institution, 
from this law of dependence. How preposterous the idea that 
the College produces a monopoly of education or fosters aristoc- 
racy. Those who receive a higher education, are not as a 
general fact the sons of the wealthy. Of the whole number 
of students in our Colleges, three-fourths are from families in 
moderate pecuniary circumstances. One-half, or more, are 
compelled to depend upon their own exertions for support. 
In the College they find what was denied them elsewhere. 
They enter a field of conrpetition where rank is determined 
by the talents with which God has endowed them, and the 
industry with which they have plied those talents. Instead 
of creating the invidious distinctions of society, the College 
furnishes the means of overcoming them. In the true sense 
of the word, it is a leveling institution ; but it equalizes not 
by bringing one class down, but by bringing another up. 
Thousands by this means have been enabled to surmount the 
barriers, which otherwise would have hemmed them in for 

D 



26 

life, and have risen to the highest respectability and useful- 
ness. Of all the civil institutions of the land, there is not 
one that embodies a more decidedly democratic element than 
the College. I need not say here what must be the influence 
of those thus educated scattered through community. They 
are both the patrons and the illustration of popular educa- 
tion. "Without the lower grade of schools, they never would 
have been prepared for, or have felt the incentive to seek the 
higher. Received from the humbler walks of life, they go 
back to diffuse through society the aroma of true culture. 
Thus, as in Prussia, where the university is a great public 
interest, common school education is most general, and as a 
system, most complete. 

I have thus sailed along the coast of this general subject, 
noticing only the head lands as they jut out into the sea, or 
those features which command attention. For want of time, 
I have not been able to penetrate the little indentations of 
the shore, the sunny bays and quiet harbors, or to examine 
the many objects of equal interest which lie remote in the 
interior. 

What shall be the future of Knox College ? We stand 
midway between the gently flowing Illinois and the majestic 
Father of Waters. As the eye looks North and South, East 
and West, it rests upon an elevated plane of unsurpassed 
fertility. A salubrious atmosphere floats over it. A teeming 
population begins to cover it. Cities and villages have sprung 
up. The spire of the church points to heaven. Literary 
institutions here and there dot the landscape. This popula- 
tion is to increase. These villages are to grow. These cities 
are to expand. These church spires are to multiply. And 
these institutions, or so many as shall be needed, are to con- 
tinue. For all which shall contribute to the cause of true 
Christian learning, we wish success. But especially for this 
Institution, on which our hopes are centered, do we desire 
the greatest prosperity, the noblest enlargement, the widest 
patronage, and a brilliant future, only as she now is, and shall 
continue increasingly to be, worthy of it. Though remote 



27 

from the marts of commerce, and the great centers of art, 
wealth, and power ; though situated in the midst of an agricul- 
tural people, what a constituency may, ought, and I trust will, 
come around this Institution. Its conception was a noble 
inspiration. It was founded in the prayers, and watered by 
the tears, of Christian men. May it be a vine whose branches 
shall cover the land, a handful of corn whose fruits shall 
shake like Lebanon. God will bless it, and may we this day 
enter upon a new and prosperous era in its history. 



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